The Things We Don't Say
by brainsucker
Summary: [ON HIATUSSLOW PROGRESS] we put our hellos, annoyances, and rumors down in words...but what about the things we don't say? do unspoken love, hate, and bonds fade? or will they be there to nag at the inside of our lips forever? pairings undecided.
1. departures

Author's tidbit: first time writing in a long while. Hope u like. Really, this part isn't that important. In fact, I suggest u skip to the bottom, where I put a summary, and read that, then go on to the next chapter.

"MAMA! DADDY! NO! LeGO put me down. I have to find Mom and Dad."

"We have to leave, Faith," the man whispered as he dragged the child, kicking and screaming, into nearby woods. The whispering was useless. She screamed loud enough for the both of them and then some, so if any raiding villagers were still around the burning house that used to be Faith's home, they would come running-- pitchforks and all. A little further in the woods, a river flowed east toward the ocean. If they can reach the riverside before Faith's incessant screaming attracted all bloodthirsty villagers within a ten mile radius, then the bloodline can get them out of the country.

The Mill Springs village in the country of water contained about two hundred households but seemed like one of those nightmarish small towns where everyone knew everyone. Except it's worse. When a group of kids drowned in the river by the village during playtime, the villagers resolutely accused Hitomi, Faith's mother, because she was allegedly washing laundry at the river when the incident happened. Just like humans. Always prepared to push off the blame. From there on, the indictments and accusations picked up the momentum of witch hunts and pursued all villagers with the bloodline ability to control water. Neighbors turned on neighbors and all of a sudden the town was eager to get rid of almost half of it's population.

The lesson here is….? Don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time…because if you are, it really is YOUR fault. Naturally.

Cione paused the bushwhacking to catch his breath but was careful not to loosen his grip on Faith. _At least she's not screaming anymore, _he thought, _maybe we can even get out of here in one piece._

Faith looked up at her captor through drenched eyelashes, "who…re you?" Her speech slurred, partially from shock and partially from the sobbing.

"Cione," he answered, looking away. Children never were especially appealing to him. They cry and scream and whine and smell funny all the time, but this one seemed to have calmed down a bit. "Listen, I ha…" _Great. She fell asleep. Now I have to carry her. See? This is why I HATE children and will NEVER. EVER. EVER. Have any of my own. They can never take care of themselves, the…_(a.n. I'm gonna cut him off before he takes up the rest of the chapter. Cione: HEY. I CAN RANT WHE… a.n.: no. u can't. cuz I'm the…? Cione: writer….yeah, yeah….)

They reached the river without much trouble, and the expected boat was in place, also.

"Hellooo there," the boatman waved cheerily at them. Obviously, he was paid sufficiently. "Just you two?"

"Yep, old man. Did her parents tell you where we're heading?" Cione asked, motioning toward the sleeping toddler in his arms.

"Konoha, wasn't it? Hitomi said she'd already made arrangements for her to stay with a family there…eh…uchiba? I think?"

"Aye, something like that."

SUMMARY+

Faith, main character, is 6 years old, possesses a bloodline ability to control water, and is being hunted by the local villagers in a witch-hunt type deal. Her parents were killed in a fire set by some neighbors.

Cione, unfaithful and rather peeved babysitter of previous toddler is taking her to konoha to live with the Uchiba family (yes, I know it's uchiha. Please don't leave a review just to tell me 'OMG yougotsasuke'snamewronghowcouldyou?').

Otherwise, thank you for reading.


	2. itachi's infected by cooties

Writer's tidbit: sasuke's in this one. Lol. Anyway, enjoy. The chapters are short, but this way, I can post more often.

It was raining when Cione arrived at Konoha's gates the next morning. He had bought a mule from a farming family on the way because _damn, kids get heavier when they fall asleep_. To his surprise, a dark-hair beauty waved at him as he neared the gate. _Ick. Must be a tour guide looking for money. Do I have dumb tourist stamped on my head or something?_

"Cione! Cione! Hey!"

_Crazy tour guide who knows my name? Well, it has happened before..._

The woman walked and took his reins, "I haven't seen you since Hitomi's wedding. Do you still remember me? We met at the reception. I'm Mikoto."

"Of course! How could I forget such a pretty lady?" _Lady, I have no clue who you are. Maybe I'll get lucky. Maybe she won't ask…_

"Haha, well, I'll take you to the house. Is this Hitomi's child? Faith, right?"

"Yeah. Cute kid." _Not. Please don't ask…._

"Just wait till they start kunai practice," the woman….Mi…something or other…said. "Nothing like a four feet tall kid running around with sharp, pointy objects and constantly trying to show off a 'new thing' by waving said pointy objects at you while simultaneously attempting to jump on you."

"…OO" _I think I'll just drop her off at the Uchiba house. _He sighed with relief, the Uchiba house is in sight. As Cione dismounted at the doorway, Faith wriggled and rubbed her eyes. _Home free. The kid'll get all their attention, I'll just slip away…hehe…_

"Aw, she's awake! Hi there, Faith. I'm Mikoto."

"Where's mama…" Faith mumbled, still drowsy.

_Noooooo. No.no.no.noononononono. AHHH. She asked it…. Um.um. think fast. Save. _"Faith, lookie at the houst! You're gonna be staying with the Uchiba family now, isn't that cool?" Mikoto shot Cione a side glance, laughed, and muttered something about "I didn't make it to Hitomi's wedding" and "lying."

From inside the house, a small boy peeked out at his guest sheepishly. He was still at the age when girls all had cooties. "Nii-chan, that girl's here!" For Sasuke, a new arrival was news of the century.

"Uh hun," Itachi spared a quick look at their guests. Maybe if she were twice as old, he would've watched longer. However, she's the same age as Sasuke, so Itachi took the liberty of giving the curious little spy a hard shove on the back.

Mikoto caught her chance to talk to Cione alone and shouted, "Sasuke! Come here! Take Faith to that guest room we prepared yesterday."

Sasuke, hoping there were another Sasuke within earshot, looked down but didn't move an inch and concentrated on activating his sharingan ability on his shoes.

"I'll take her, Mikoto," Itachi volunteer after a few seconds of dead silence. He took the sleepy girl from Cione's arms and headed off to the guest room with Sasuke trailing behind in an adapted 007 style only a toddler could pull off.

Mercilessly, Mikoto turned her attention to Cione, who was in the process of sneaking off. "What happened?"

"Ah…well…um…you see…the villagers kind of went a little teeny bit overboard and well…somewhat torchedthehouseinthemiddleofthenight," he laced the backed end of his sentence together, hoping the deciphering process would buy his enough time to mount his donkey and run for his life. Telling powerful ninja women that their best friend was just burned to death isn't usually good for one's health.

"I see. Thank you for bringing her."

"Hn. No problem. Goodbye."


	3. mischief and friendship

I just realized that I forgot the disclaimness on the first two chapters, so here it is: I wish sasuke was mine and too bad wishing doesn't do anything. Faith is cool and she's mine, though. )

Btw, leave reviews people. I do want to know that someone's reading it.

One more thing. TracEy, sorry the update's late. We didn't get back yesterday.

One more thing, just kidding…

A few weeks later, Faith finally began to settle into her new home. She incessantly asked for her mother the first few weeks but received endless amounts of indirect half answers and the subject sank under the surface slowly, covered by a thin layer of uneasiness.

Mikoto took Faith to see the Hokage a week after she arrived. Faith, nervous at first, was relieved and disappointed when all she got was a lollipop, a pat on the head, and a 20 minute wait in the hallway outside the Hokage's office while Mikoto "discussed police business with the Hokage."

At home, Itachi took peculiar interest in the girl, "Faith, do you want to look around the town a little? I have the rest of the day off."

"Um…okay."

Sasuke flinched; Itachi had promised the afternoon to him. "But, nii-chan, you said we'd go train in the forest today." _She's stealing my brother! This means war._

"Don't be so selfish, little brother, Faith just got here, she needs to see the town," Itachi reasoned and flicked Sasuke on the forehead. Then, he added, "You can come along, too."

Sasuke mumbled an "okay" but wrinkled his nose at Faith in an attempt to death glare, and Faith stared at him, puzzled.

The gigantic faces of the Hokages hung over them as the man who was least likely to have children strolled around town with two halt-pints at his heels, competing for his attention.

"Itachi! Look!" Sasuke yelled as he balanced a stack of plastic plates on his head.

Faith's method of attraction? Well…seven year old girls somehow always suck up the attention by just standing there, which really ticked someone off.

Itachi paused to watch a few more acrobatics starring his spikey haired brother and then moved on with Faith clutching his sleeve, "Come on, Sasuke. We have to get to the academy before that clown Iruka runs off with Naruto to the ramen shop, again."

Sasuke, realizing that the trip was just an order from their mother to register Faith at the academy, grinned and ran after them. He hated the idea that his brother would prefer some new girl over him; even if Itachi's never been particularly affectionate with him (at all), his nii-chan sometimes made up for the lack of attention from his father.

"There it is, the ninja academy…and there he is, the slacker's leaving and it's only 3 o'clock. OY! IRUKA!"

"Eh? Oh, Itachi-san. Hello."

"You weren't just about to cut out on our appointment, right?"

"Oh! Ooof course not. I was just," he rubbed his head as Naruto yelled "Come on, Iruka sensei!" in the background. "I was just…watering the flowers. Hehe."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at his sensei. It's hard to imagine that someone as silly as Iruka is a real ninja. Would he even stab people? Then again, maybe that's why he works at the academy.

"Whatever. This is Faith," Itachi motions at …air! "Faith! Sasuke! Did you see her leave? Sasuke?"

"Oh, they're probably with Naruto. He's been trying to recruit partners in crime all day," Iruka offered. "Come on, I know what he's trying to steal." Sure enough, they found the three little culprits below a open high window to the storeroom. Each was clutching a prize, a shiny forehead protector, and grinning widely.

"NARUTO! You better put that back before I…hey! Come back here! Ack!" Iruka started to run after them but Itachi grabbed the back of his vest.

"Let's go do Faith's registration paperwork. They'll be back soon."

After sprinting halfway across town, Naruto suddenly stopped. Sasuke slammed into Naruto and Faith into Sasuke. They lay, laughing and wheezing, in a heap of arms and legs in the middle of Konoha's busiest street. The new girl agreed to mischief readily, and Sasuke tagged along, too. Naruto couldn't believe that Sasuke actually came along; he was so used to the local children's de facto discrimination that he never even tried to associate with an Uchiha. Yet here they are, a tangled mess of innocent companionship, dirt, and stolen goods.


	4. during the night

Adrenaline ran low, and eventually, the trio dispersed. The blonde boy everyone else treated as trash seemed to have finally made two new friends. However, when he ran into Iruka sensei at the ramen shop, Naruto was forced to produced the stolen forehead protector after enduring a long lecture on responsibility, discipline, the meaning of life and whatnot.

Sasuke received a thwack on the back of the head from his father for pilfering the ninja gear and shot a glare at Faith when it became clear that no one was going to asked her for hers. Looks like he's starting to get the hang of this death glare business. _But…she's not so bad. I mean…well I guess she doesn't have cooties._

And Faith just smiled an ambiguous little smile that could've meant anything from "I'm going to be very happy as I rip each of your fingers off with a pair of rusty pliers" to "imagines Sasuke naked GOTCHA. No, just kidding. Hehe."

Over the years, Faith found a place in Konoha. Well, the girls certainly didn't make room for her after they discovered she was staying with _their_ Sasuke, but Naruto had enough prank ideas for the both of them with a small portion reserved for Sasuke when he felt mischievous and courageous enough to brave his dad. Once, they even painted Neji's bathroom pink with the help of Hinata. Actually, Hinata thought she was just being nice cause she thought Naruto's plumbing was backed up.

Itachi developed into a potential nominee for nanny of the year. Whenever he trained, Sasuke and Faith tagged along to watch and gape, and he always took them out on trips during his days off which steadily decreased in number and frequency. In fact, they hardly ever see him around the house anymore.

The first few months, Faith often woke up crying for her mommy, and Itachi was always the first one in her room to comfort her because his room was right next door. Sasuke would come next and linger in the doorway, halfway between envy and pity. Then, Mikoto would come to tell Sasuke off to bed and peel the whimpering Faith out of Itachi's arms while thinking to herself, _you are just like your mother, always crying and sniveling when you think you're alone. I wonder if my child would have been like this…_

--

yea. I know you wanted a longer chapter but it was either this or nothing…sorry.

Disclaimer, Faith is mine. The plot is mine. Nothing else.


	5. safe in loneliness

Ok, some time has passed. About 3 years later…

Itachi's out on a mission. Mikoto's out on a mission. It's raining. And Faith is staring Sasuke down for the heck of it. Suddenly, she blurts out "neh, Sasuke, how come your dad doesn't like me?" The head of the family didn't actually _dislike_ her or anything; he just ignored her, much like many others did, but it was kind of odd since the rest of the family seemed to take interest in the young girl and he could probably count the number of words he's said to her on one hand.

"…" Sasuke looses the staring contest, then snaps, "how should I know! He's not _your_ dad. Besides…he doesn't pay any attention to me, either." The little boy was close to tears. Faith hit a soft spot, and for the longest time, they stood on opposite sides of the empty room, both looking for money on the floor or something.

Maybe she should've walked away from the tense situation. That might save them both a great deal of trouble, but she had to suggest, " why don't you make him pay attention. Ask him to teach you that fire blowing technique or something," and then she left him hanging and ran off to find more mischief with Naruto.

Unfortunatly, when Faith, soaking wet from running through the rainstorm, knocked on Naruto's door, she caught Naruto off-guard. The cheerful Hokage hopeful answered the door with dry eyes, but failed to wipe off his wet cheeks.

"Naruto, what's wrong?"

Her friend looked away, ashamed.

Faith carefully stepped inside and pulled the door closed as quietly as possible without taking her eyes off Naruto. For some reason, Naruto's unusual behavior didn't surprise her at all. She knew what it's like to cry behind a locked door. Somehow, it always seemed ok to let the tears fall when no one's looking. She slipped her arms around his trembling shoulders in an action too eloquent for an innocent nine year old, and began to sing…

He goes to school

with a bright smile

the teachers think

he's full of wile

but can they see

past the smiling face

why his happiness

is out of place

and they all say the past is forgotten and gone

but nobody will leave him alone

Why do they all like to dump their hate

On a boy who has a grudge with fate

let him look a little

closer to home

for someone he can

call his own

and when he sees

that she is right here

the skies will get

a little more clear

through the pain and the tears

he stays loyal this town that has made him an outcast

and when tomorrow comes light as can be

he will find that he has finally found a home

A.N. I actually wrote and recorded this song, you can hear it at myspace(dot)com(slash)20602683 . replace "(dot)" with "." and "(slash )" with "/". track, title is 'home'. The melody is based off of martina mcbride's concret angel, tweaked to fit my lyrics. The software I used speeded up the tempo when I exported as mp3, so sorry that it's so fast…

And sorry, that's it for today. Short, I know. Btw, REVIEW. I took off the ban on anonymous reviews. Actually, I didn't even know they were disabled till my friend told me today. Lol.

EDIT yeah...something's funny with the document. why doesn't it let me put urls?


	6. little white lies

The song died down to soft humming, then to silence…

"Achoo…crap, Sasuke's cursing me again."

Naruto blinked, confused, and cracked a cheery smile, "maybe you just got a cold from running here in the rain?"

"Yeah, but it's always more fun to blame Sasuke," Faith answered with a hearty laugh. "It's getting late, I'd better go back." She took a look at her watch and added, "Naruto, let me use your phone. It's not _getting _late; it _is_ late."

"Hun? Oh, ya, on the counter over there."

After digging through a three feet tall pile of junk, Faith came to the conclusion that Naruto doesn't call people very often. "Mikoto-sama? It's me, Faith…yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry, I should've called. I'll be righ…um, can I sleep over at Naruto's house tonight? We're going fishing early tomorrow, so it's easier to leave from his place…yeah I'll bring yall some fish. Ok thanks."

"You're staying?"

"Sure." With a genuine smile plastered on, Faith plopped down on the couch and went straight to sleep.

Naruto stared at Faith in disbelief for a few seconds, and then remembered that this is _Faith_. This is who she is. Chuckling, he wandered into his bedroom.

_See you later, Naruto._ Faith thought as she walked out the door.

On the couch lay a note, "Meet me behind Ino's house."

Author's note: DON'T PANIC. I'm posting the next chapter right now…

While you wait (or don't wait) please go to whymyblogstinksdotcom and vote for #18 in the poll to the right (scroll down a bit). Please and thank yous!

insert standard disclaimer here


	7. not so little white lies

"Yo Naruto, over here," motioning to Naruto, Faith made sure to stay in the shadows. "Today's Sasuke's thirteenth birthday, and the kid's so shy his fangirls are going to catch dust. SO I thought that we'd help him along," Faith started briefing Naruto on Operation Sasuke's Love Life. "Here's the plan, you know that transformation jutsu they taught us?..."

"Henke," (a.n. is that the word?) Faith, well, actually Sasuke said. "How do I look?"

"HAHA. PERFECT. You're the best, Faith."

"Ok, well he often comes down this road to pick up bread in the morning, so you gotta watch my back, ok?" _Good thing I picked Ino. I had a feeling Naruto was crushing on Sakura. Hehe. _Strutting up to Ino's front door in an overly exaggerated cool guy walk, Faith/Sasuke fixed her/his hair and knocked on the door.

"Ohayo," Ino's mother answered the door. Apparently, Ino was still fixing her hair in the background.

"Ohayo, I'm looking for Ino-san," Faith/Sasuke said with a flashy smile. _He's so cute when smiles. Note to self, must make Sasuke smile more._

"Oh! Okay! Sweetie pie! There's a boy here looking for you! Honey! Hallooooo, sleepy head!..."

Ino started and sprinted to cut her mom off. With a huge smile stretching across her face, Ino turned to the Sasuke in her doorway, "Sasuke-kun! Good morningggg!" Then she quickly turned around and made hand motions at an inquisitive mother while hissing, "_Go away, mom. No. no. just go!_"

"Ino-san, I was wondering if you would like to go out with me today. Its my birthday." –insert cute smile here-

"Uh-hun. Yes. Yah. I will. Ok." _HAH! Take THAT, forehead girl and new girl._

"Ok, then. Can you meet me at my house tonight at seven?"

"Of course!" _I have to wait til seven?_

"Great! See you then," Faith/Sasuke turned and cool-guy-strutted back to Naruto's hiding spot before dropping the disguise and nearly dying of laughter._ What could be better than plotting against your best friend with your other best friend? _"Wow, it's past noon. I gotta go, Naruto. Still have to buy fish and Sasuke's present," she said as she took off. "Hey, maybe I could use the fish as Sasuke's present. Nah, he'll think I'm cheap…I could put his present _in_ the fish…HAHA."

A.N. yeah, I messed with Sasuke's history. Cuz his family was killed when he was like seven or something in the series, right? Well, it is _my_ fanfic.

While you wait (or don't wait) please go to whymyblogstinksdotcom and vote for #18 in the poll to the right (scroll down a bit). Please and thank yous!

If you already did then I love you!

-insert standard disclaimer here-


	8. fashionably late

On the way home, Faith picked up a bag of sorry looking fish from the grocery store to correlate with her infamous incapacity for fishing and was in the middle of browsing for the perfect shiny object when firm hand rested on her shoulder. She turned to see Itachi, clad in anbu armor, holding a small brown paper bag. "Faith, I have an urgent mission. Can you tell Sasuke happy birthday for me?" he said in a cool voice.

Faith knew that he wasn't really asking, but she still had to try, "you already missed his last two birthdays. Can't someone cover the mission for you?"

"I'll make it up to him later. Besides, this is the last time he'll miss me on his birthday, tell him that."

She sighed, but only nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait, give this to him," Itachi said, holding the paper bag out.

She took it, dangled it in the air, and glared at him questionably. "First you tell me to disappoint Sasuke about your absence. Now you give me your lunch for his birthday present!"

"That's NOT my lunch, jeez Faith."

"Then how come it _smells_ like your lunch?"

Then there was a beautifully tense silence while Itachi's cheeks turned a pale shade of peach. Faith glared at him some more, determined to get the real answer.

Itachi spat out, "So I was too lazy to wrap it and just reused my lunch bag, so what! Kids these days…" and stalked off.

"Itachi," Faith called out and he paused, "he really, really looks up to you. I hope you mean what you said." Itachi walked off without looking back and Faith sigh and trudged home.

"Mikoto! I'm hoooommeee," Faith yelled as soon as she got in the courtyard. She was extremely eager to tip her aunt off about Sasuke's date. Everyone explained to her that she came to live with the Uchihas because Mikoto and Hitomi, her mother, were sisters. The word "cousins" didn't feel quite right, but there was no proof either way. That didn't really stop the other girls in the village from being jealous of Faith's proximity with Sasuke, though. Nothing stops idiots.

"Any catches worth showing off?" Mikoto called from the kitchen.

"Come _on_. It's me. Do I ever catch fish?" Faith answered and held up the shrimp sized fish for Mikoto to examine before tossing the bad in the sink. "So," she began in a low voice, "I got Sasuke a date with Ino-chan at seven tonight." Faith stopped to look around for eavesdroppers and continued, "she's that blonde chick we go to school with."

Mikoto smiled and then laughed. Most of the other village kids have started dating and it was weird that Sasuke never went out with any girls except Faith. However, Faith didn't really count as one of the girls.

"Don't tell him, okay? It'll be our little secret. Is insert sasuke's dad's name here… going to be ok with it?"

Suddenly, Mikoto's giggle died down, "he won't be there tonight. He has a mission."

"Oh, that's too bad. Itachi said he'd be out, too. Wow it's six already, I'll go get Sasuke ready. When Ino gets here you're going to have to help get Sasuke out the door with her. That won't be easy," Faith said as she bounced off to find Sasuke. When she got to his door was she skid to a stop. "Uh oh…" Apparantly, Ino was a little bit early for her date and was now surgically attached to Sasuke's arm. Sasuke, being the weirdo that he is, was taking an afternoon nap and had on nothing but some boxers. As soon as he spotted Faith's face in the doorway, she took off running down the hall.

"FAITH! YOU DID THIS, DIDN'T YOU? GET BACK HERE! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Still running and half out of breath, she hollered, "well that's not very good incentive, is it!"

a.n. sorry for the slowdown of updates, I've been working on my original manga. Anyway, I'll have drawings of faith up on my deviantart soon so check it…

neverbluedotdeviantartdotcom


	9. below the surface

As Faith ran past Mikoto she abruptly stopped and whispered to her, "Ino's early, you're up," before continuing to a safer hiding spot.

From inside the kitchen, Faith saw Sasuke storm into the courtyard with Ino still attached and yell, "'ka-san, where is she? I'm gonna kill her!"

To this, Mikoto only smiled a warm little smile and replied, "not right now, you have a lady guest waiting."

Sasuke scowled and started to protest but his mother silenced him with a meaningful "Uchiha Sasuke, I didn't raise you to be rude when called on by ladies." Exasperated but powerless, Sasuke could only turn reluctantly and leave his house with Ino who is _still_ bound to his arm.

After exchanging a victorious smile with Mikoto, Faith returned to her room and set Itachi's present for Sasuke down on her bed. Then the door slammed shut behind her. Faith jumped and swung around to see a, shall we say, less than happy Sasuke. "Look, Sasuke," Faith stammered, "it was just a bit of fun. No blood, no foul, eh?" and chased it with a nervous laugh.

Advancing menacingly, Sasuke began in a soft voice, "sure, no blood, no foul." The kunai he pulled out added the his intimidating gestures, and he added, "but…we can always _make_ a little blood…"

Faith gulped and closed her eyes. Sasuke wouldn't actually hit her, she knew that, but he was quite prodigious in the dark arts of pranks if pushed far enough.

"Faith," his voice toned down from poisoned honey to sweet dew, "if you wanted to, well, be more than friends you should've just said so. It'd be weird with the whole unconfirmable cousin thing, but I can't help it that I like you…" he looked down tentatively at her.

Faith blushed furiously, yet since she was already backed into the wall she had nowhere left to go.

"Anyways, you didn't have to throw girls at me," Sasuke said in a barely audible whisper as he leaned down in an attempt to peck the turnip red Faith on the cheek.

The door slid open and a stern voice commanded, "Sasuke, go back to your room immediately."

She tensed involuntarily, bumping her head into the wall, and Sasuke jumped back, flustered at not noticing the door open, and stalked out of the room as quickly as possible, muttering "mother" as he exited. Faith squeezed her eyes shut with vain hopes that the darkness could swallow her embarrassment. The sound of the door closing surprised her, Faith expected this to be one of those "we're gonna have a good talk" incidents, but nothing happened. In fact, no one ever spoke about it. The birthday dinner went smoothly with Mikoto lightly poking fun at Sasuke's surprise date and Faith stringing along cautiously. Night fell and the three of them retreated to their rooms and still no words about the episode.

AN sorry bout the lack of updates. Also, I haven't gotten a chance to upload the pictures of faith yet, they'll probably be up with the next chapter.

PLEASE review, I need to know people are reading cuz this story is starting to outlive it's original purpose…but I do still have a lot planned for it and I'm willing to continue if I know I have readers. Thanks.


	10. the meaningful silence

The next morning, everything seemed cool and calm; no one dared act recklessly when Uchiha senior returned from mission. If the mission was a success, he would go straight to bed for rest. If it failed, on the rare occasion that he was unsuccessful, he'd spend several hours barking out orders and picking at every single insignificant non-mistake in sight. Mikoto and Sasuke stood waiting for him at the door; Faith decided she wouldn't be missed and slept in.

Uchiha Fugaku walked in quietly and proceeded to his room without a word to his wife or second son, who gazed expectantly at him until he vanished behind a corner. Sasuke looked down, disappointed once again; he had hoped that his father's aloofness toward him would change now that he mastered the Katon technique. Breathing easier, Mikoto left Sasuke's side and headed off toward her husband's room slowly, almost reluctantly, not wanting to spoil his good mood, but she had to tell him about Sasuke and Faith before…before it gets too late.

Sasuke, feeling slightly neglected, trudged back to mope in his room but ran head first into his brother. "Ni-chan! I didn't see y…" Sasuke gaped at his brother who was soaking wet and seemed to have tears in his eyes, though it could've been water. They usually cleaned up at the police station before coming home, so Sasuke was shocked to see his brother in such a state. "A-are you o-ok?" he stammered.

"Ya," Itachi answered in a voice that was barely audible and turned to walk away, looking foggy and dazed. Then he stopped midstep and added without looking back, "Sasuke, learn to take care of yourself."

"Ni-chan, what do you mean?"

Itachi held up a hand and cut him off, then continued walking, or rather half stumbling, half drifting, to his quarters, and left Sasuke standing there frozen in the spot.

From her favorite tree, Faith watched the entire scenario at a safe distance; she had planned to sleep through their return but a voice kept on nudging her to go check it out, after all, it is important to keep track of Fugaku's mood. But she hadn't ever expect to see Itachi like that, soaking wet, crying, stunned. The look on his face took her back, back to her old village on one winter day when she saw her neighbor walk home with a gang of armed men. He wore the same mortified expression with the same tears pouring down his cheeks. Faith remembered that thirty minutes later they found him, his wife and the group of men stabbed to death, and she wondered who Itachi was about to kill or possibly who he had just killed. In her reverie, Faith didn't notice that Fugaku had returned to the courtyard accompanied by his wife, who was making timid gestures and attempts at restraining him, but her moments were too soft and went unnoticed.

"Sasuke," he called sharply.

Sasuke turned his head, cricking his neck in the process, "yes father?"

"You are not to speak to Faith anymore. You will not go anywhere near her room. Do you understand me?" Fugaku commanded in a calm but strict voice that threatened to crush any rebellion.

"Wha…why?" said Sasuke, his voice rising due to panic and confusion. His eyes darted from Fugaku to his mother, who was making a point to not make eye contact and looked very flustered and wrong footed.

"You understand, that when the time comes, the clan will find an appropriate match for you," replied his father. Fugaku turned on his heels and strode out of the picture, finalizing his orders. Mikoto stole an apologetic glance at Sasuke and trailed behind her husband with her shoulders slumped in a guilty fashion.

Shaking his head, Sasuke couldn't believe his senses. Why wasn't anyone talking to him? Why isn't his father mad? Maybe he was mad and he just wasn't yelling. And what _is _up with his brother? Seeing as everyone was making an effort to ignore him, all Sasuke could think of to do at the moment was wander back to his room and hope that he'd wake up from this bewildering nightmare.

AN thanks to everyone who review. Trishell, Puppy Paws Kitty Klaws, bisha, and NightRain0.

As promised, here's a picture of faith at this point of the story…

deviantartdotcom/view/36121191/

replace "dot" with "."


	11. options

AN I've decided on a new disclaimer and wanted to add it at the beginning of my chapter. The other one about me not owning anything that the naruto owner owns still applies, of course.

Disclaimer 2: I reserve the right to write whatever I so choose and the reader reserves the right to decide whether or not he or she wants to read it.

With that said, I'd like to thank Enraged Karupin for taking the time to leave a lengthy though extremely generalized and possibly irrelevant review and would like to give him or her a message:

Like my disclaimer says, I can post whatever and you don't have to read it. Also, I'm glad you reviewed and welcome your negative criticism. However, I would appreciate it next time if you actually read my story before leaving a flaming review.

Lastly, I'd like to apologize if I offended any "TRUE FANS" with my "Sue story" and my "Suethor's mind." However, do not insult my readers with name calling; that is so elementary because last time I checked, we can enjoy whatever we choose to.

I didn't expect everyone to like my story, and I'm not going to stop writing just because "true fans" like Enraged Karupin here dislikes it enough to flame me.

Onward, and sorry about the long AN, I just felt the need to address that issue….

_Ooookay, too awkward. I'm outta here_, thought Faith, hopping swiftly off her tree and over the compound walls.

On the way to Naruto's house, she stopped at the ramen shop and lifted up the flaps of fabric to look for her friend, who was preoccupied with stuffing his face. Faith smiled to herself and crouched for the kill, prepared to jump on Naruto.

"Faith!" called a voice from a fellow diner.

"SHHHHH!" Faith hissed, wheeling on the speaker, "AWW you ruined it!"

"Oh, what did I ruin?" he stammered.

Faith glared at him.

"Um…sorry?"

Groaning, she plopped down on the stool between Naruto and the stranger, "So, what do you want?"

"Do you recognize me?" he asked, motioning at his face in an apelike manner.

"Am… I…. supposed to?" Faith answered cautiously, afraid it might be another fourth cousin twice removed who she was introduced to previously.

"Oh, well, I guess it has been a while. I'm Cione," he stated as if that cleared everything up.

"Um…" she turned to Naruto for help but should've known better, as he was on the next bowl already.

"I brought you here from the water country seven years ago."

"UhhOH, you!" Faith beamed and added, "How are you, dude? Doing well?" For extra effect, she clasped her hand on his shoulder as one would do with an old war ally; she had no clue who this guy is.

"Fine. Great. I'm good," he said, indecisively sputtering adjectives.

"Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear that," replied Faith.

He shifted in his seat straightened up to a more businesslike posture, and Faith let her hand drop off his shoulder. "I'm here because I thought you might like to come back to your home country to," he paused and looked around the booth before deciding that Naruto was too busy eating to eavesdrop and continued, "work on your bloodline technique."

"That aquakinesis stuff?" she asked.

He made a silence motion and resumed, "Yes, that. Someone in the water country is trying to reassemble the survivors of the purge in order to revive the clan. But, seeing as how they were scattered during the chaos, he hasn't made much progress. If you want to come, I've already spoken to the Hokage, and he has agreed to let you return to your home country for the training."

At the moment, Faith saw no reason why she should want to leave Konoha, but the little voice in her head kept telling her _keep your options open._ So she did. "I'll think about it," she replied and turned to Naruto.

"I'm be in room 125 in the Konoha Grand until the end of next week."

"Ok," answered Faith curtly as she dragged Naruto away before he could order his sixth bowl.


	12. darkness falls

"I don't get you," Naruto whined as they stepped into their mischief headquarters, a.k.a. Naruto's kitchen, "Training! He offered you _training_ from a _master_. You could be so much stronger."

Faith shook her head and picked at one of the deteriorating corners of the couch.

"If I were you, I'd take every chance to become stronger because one day I'm gonna be…"

"The Hokage, I know," Faith snapped. "But, I just don't want to go. I think, well up until yesterday, I thought I had a family here. Mikoto, Sasuke, Itachi, when he's around…and I have friends here, too… Ok, I have _a friend_," she said, giving Naruto an appreciative glance.

He blushed and scratched his head, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Crap," said Faith as she glared at the window, "I was supposed to get home before dark."

"I'll walk you home," piped Naruto eagerly.

"Ok," replied Faith as she sprang off the couch and marched off toward the front door.

As soon as they exited the apartment complex, Faith took off running with Naruto tailing her. The distance between their houses was at least twenty minutes walking and she was already late, so they sprinted through the streets at top speed, grateful that it was that hour of twilight between the wholesome family shoppers of the late afternoon and the booming nightlife crowd. Thanks to the near empty streets, the pair arrived quickly at the Uchiha compound, where they stopped outside the gates.

Faith turned to face Naruto, who was beaming at her and trying to catch his breath at the same time, which sounded a bit like he had eaten one too many chili peppers. "I'm really glad to have you as a friend," she said in an unusually soft voice and stepped forward to hug Naruto, who was grinning toothily again. "Sasuke's being all…I don't know. Whatever. Naruto are you listening to me?" Faith asked in a skeptical voice.

Naruto stared, transfixed, straight ahead, but he wasn't looking at the girl. Beyond the entrance of the Uchiha compound, a small form sat in the middle of the courtyard, darkened and obscured by the extinguished lanterns. Then it hit Faith hard; the entire compound was dark; every corner of the usually warm mini-villa was pitch black. She started to turn around, and her stomach followed suit with a heavy feeling of dread.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called, squinting to see into the darkness.

_Why is everything dark? Where're the lights? Where is everyone? What…what's that smell?_

With each question, Faith fell a little deeper into panic. The humid night air seemed to transform into a toxic vapor that pressed in on her eyes, and the first droplets of rain came down heavy and hard and threatened to pierce her skin. She closed her eyes and ran forward; she had to reach him, but something seemed determined to stop her. Five steps into the courtyard, Faith tripped over a cushiony object and fell fast onto the concrete, which skinned her palms. She looked back out of instinct, and the waning moonlight rescued from the darkness, an arm. She glanced down at her hands, and she knew exactly what that smell was.

_Blood_.

The pavement was covered in blood.

AN: as always, reviews are deeply appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Also, do me a favor and visit edeninfodotcom/rapture

Replace "dot" with "."

This is the under construction site of my original illustrated novel, rapture.


	13. change of heart

Faith stared at the crimson ground for only a moment before shaking herself loose. "Sasuke!" she yelled, running to his quivering form in the thick darkness, "Sasuke! What happened?"

He sat there, on the ground, shaking and unresponsive, so Faith reached out and shook his shoulder, which made Sasuke wince. Squinting, Faith saw that Sasuke had received a deep cut on his shoulder, and her hand was now covered in his blood. She screamed, "Naruto!"

The blond boy came running, but Faith motioned him away, yelling, "Go get help! Go!" He nodded and sprinted off into the night.

Sasuke slumped a little closer to the ground, and Faith noticed for the first time that they were both kneeling in his blood, which continually gushed out of the open wound. Then, the boy toppled backwards and landed on the ground with a thump like that of a corpse when it hit the floor, and Faith panicked, covering the wound with her hands like she saw the adults do and trying to push down to stop the bleeding. "Shit, he's bleeding to death," she whimpered while trying to push down harder on his shoulder. "Why isn't this working! WHY! Dammit, stop!" His shoulder, chest, neck, and arms were all slippery because of the rain and the blood and sweat and tears, and she just couldn't plant her hands firmly, and she kept screaming at him in a sharp, frightened voice, "Stop! Stop it! Go back! no…" tears ran down her cheeks and merged with the rainwater, creating little streams down her face and neck and disappearing when they hit her clothes. The screams were softer now, more like desperate pleading. She didn't notice, but his wound wasn't bleeding anymore, and some of the blood and rain around the cut slowly trickled back in, and his eyes opened slightly, then closed again because of the pounding rain, and then opened a crack to peek.

"You."

Faith looked up, startled to hear his voice.

"You knew this was going to happen. He told you. Why didn't you warn us!" Sasuke snarled with a grimace on his face, clearly beginning to feel the pain of the cut.

"I…what? What the hell are you talking about!" she screeched at him, eyes wide and mouth open.

"He said to talk to you! You knew Itachi was going to kill everyone!"

"Itachi? Itachi wouldn't have done this! You're fucking delusional!" She shouted, pushing him away by his hurt shoulder, which made him wince in pain, and she immediately softened and reached out her arm, intending to comfort him, "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

He slapped her hands away with his other arm and snapped, "You knew what he was going to do, and instead of helping us you had to run off with that demon fox boyfriend of yours!"

"What! How dare you! He's not my boyfriend, and you of all people should know him enough not to call him that! What the hell is wrong with you!" Fatih huffed and stood up to distance herself from Sasuke.

"What's wrong with me! My family is DEAD! Fucking DEAD! That's what's wrong with me! And it's all because of you!" Sasuke lunged at Faith, who ducked to one side out of instinct, but the boy fell short and landed on the ground, behind him stood an ANBU officer and Naruto, who looked surprised and hurt at first, but tried to mask it with sympathy, and ended up with a skewed, sickly expression on his face.

For a moment, Faith looked completely lost, but then she asked in an urgent, slightly accusing voice, "What did you do! Is he okay?"

AN: upped the rating because of language. Reviews, plz.


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